Frequently asked Software Testing interview questions

#1) What is the difference between Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and testing?

Quality Assurance is the process of planning and defining the way of monitoring and implementing the quality (test) processes within a team and organization. This method basically defines and sets the quality standards of the projects.

Quality Control is the process of finding defects and providing suggestions to improve the quality of the software. The methods used by Quality Control are usually established by the quality assurance.

It is the primary responsibility of the testing team to implement quality control.

Testing is the process of finding defects/bug. It validates whether the software built by the development team meets the requirements set by the user and the standards set by the organization.

#2) When do you think QA activities should start?

QA activity should start from the beginning of the project. The more early it starts the more benefit it is to set the standards for achieving the quality.

The cost, time and efforts are very challenging in case the QA activities gets delayed.

#3) What is the difference between the Test Plan and Test Strategy

Test Strategy is at a higher level, mostly created by the Project Manager which demonstrates the overall approach of the testing for the entire project, whereas Test plan basically depicts the how the testing should be performed for a particular application, falling under a project.

#4) Can you explain the software testing life cycle?

Software Testing Life Cycle refers to a testing process which has specific steps to be executed in a definite sequence to ensure that the quality goals have been met.


#5) How do you define a format of writing a good test case?

A test case has the below format:

Test case ID,
Test case description
Severity
Priority
Environment
Build version
Steps to execute
Expected results
Actual results


#6) What is a good test case?

In simple words, a good test case is one which finds a defect. But all test case will not find defects, so A good test case can also be one which has all the prescribed details and coverage.

#7) What would you do if you have a large suite to execute in a very less time?

In case we have less time and have to execute larger volume of test cases, we should prioritize the test case at first instant and execute the high priority test cases first and then move on to the lower priority ones.

This way we can make sure that the important aspects of the software are tested.

Alternatively, we may also seek customer preference that which is the most important function of the software according to them, and we should start testing from those areas and then gradually move to those areas which are of less importance.

#8) Do you think QA’s can also participate to resolve production issues?

Definitely!! It would be a good learning curve for QA’s to participate in resolving production issues. Many a time production issues could be resolved by clearing the logs or making some registry settings or by restarting the services.

These kinds of environmental issues could be very well fixed by the QA team.

Also If QAs have an insight on resolving the production issues, they may also include them while writing the test cases, and this way they can contribute to improve quality and try to minimize the production defects.

#9) Suppose you find a bug in production, how would you make sure that the same bug is not introduced again?

The best way is to immediately write a test case for the production defect and include it in the regression suite. This way we ensure that the bug does not get introduced again.

Also many a time we can also think of alternate test cases or similar kind of test case and include them in our planned execution.

#10) What is the difference between functional and nonfunctional testing?

Functional testing basically deals with the functional aspect of the application. This technique tests that the system is behaving as per the requirement and specification.

These are directly linked with customer requirement. We validate the test cases against the specified requirement and make the test pass or failed accordingly.

Examples include regression, integration, system, smoke etc…

Nonfunctional testing – on the other hand, tests the Nonfunctional aspect of the application. It tests NOT the requirement, but the environmental factors like performance, load, and stress.

These are not explicitly specified in the requirement but are prescribed in the quality standards. So as QA we have to make sure that these testing are also given sufficient time and priority.

#11) What is negative testing? How is it different from positive testing?

Negative testing is a technique which validates that the system behaves gracefully in case of any invalid inputs.

For example, in case the user enters any invalid data in a text box, the system should display a proper message instead of the technical message which the user does not understand.

Negative testing is different from positive testing in a way that positive testing validates that our system works as expected and compares the test results with the expected results.


Most of the time scenarios for negative testing are not mentioned in the functional requirement documents. As a QA we have to identify the negative scenarios and should have provisions to test those.

#12) How would you ensure that your testing is complete and has good coverage?

Requirement traceability matrix and Test coverage matrices will help us to determine that our test cases have good coverage.

Requirement traceability matrices will help us to determine that the test conditions are enough so that all the requirements are covered.

Coverage matrices will help us to determine that the test cases are enough to satisfy all the identified test conditions in RTM.

An RTM will look something like:

quality assurance 1

Similarly, Test coverage matrices will look like:

quality assurance 2

#13) What are the different artifacts you refer when you write the test cases?

The main artifacts used are:

Functional requirement specification
Requirement understanding document
Use Cases
Wireframes
User Stories
Acceptance criteria
Many a time UAT test cases

#14) Have you ever managed writing the test cases without having any documents?

Yes, many a time we have a situation where we have to write test cases without having any concrete documents. In that case, the best way is to

Collaborate with the BA and development team.
Dig into mails which have some information.
Dig into older test cases/regression suite
If the feature is new, try to read the wiki pages or help of the application to have an idea
Sit with the developer and try to understand the changes being made.
Based on your understanding, identify the test condition and send it to BA or stakeholders to review them.

#15) What is meant by Verification and Validation?

Validation is the process of evaluating the final product to check whether the software meets the business needs.

The test execution which we do in our day to day life is actually the validation activity which includes smoke testing, functional testing, regression testing, systems testing etc…

Verification is a process of evaluating the intermediary work products of a software development lifecycle to check if we are in the right track of creating the final product.

#16) What are the different verification techniques you know?

Verification techniques are static in nature. There are 3 verification techniques:

Review, Inspection, and walkthrough.

1) Review – Is a method by which the code/test cases are examined by the individual other than the author who has produced it.

It is one of the easy and best ways to ensure coverage and quality.

2) Inspection – Is a technical and disciplined way to examine and correct the defects in the test artifact or code. Because it is disciplined, it has various roles:

Moderator – Who facilitates the entire inspection meeting
Recorder – Who records the minutes of the meeting, defects occurred, and other points discussed.
Reader – The one who will read out the document/code. The leader also leads the entire inspection meeting.
Producer – The author. They are ultimately responsible to update their document/code as per the comments.
Reviewer – All the team can be considered as the reviewer. This role can also be played to be some group of experts is the project demands.
3) Walkthrough – Is a process in which the author of the document/code reads the content and gets the feedback.


#17) What is the difference between Load and Stress testing?

Stress Testing is a technique which validates the behavior of the system when it executes under stress. To explain, we reduce the resources and check the behavior of the system.

We first understand the upper limit of the system and gradually reduce the resources and check the system behavior.

In Load testing, we validate the system behavior under the expected load. The load can be of concurrent user or resources accessing the system at the same time.

#18) In case you have any doubts regarding your project, how do you approach?

In case of any doubts, first, try to get it clear by reading the available artifacts/application help. In case of doubts still persisting, ask an immediate supervisor or the senior member of your team.

BA’s would also be a good choice to ask the doubts. We can also touch base with the development team in case of any doubts. The last option would be to follow up with the manager and finally to the stakeholders.

#19) Have you used any Automation tools?

The answer to this question is very much exclusive to the individual. Reply with all the tools and strategy of automation that you have used in your project.

#20) How do you determine which piece of software require how much testing?

We can know this factor by finding out the Cyclomatic Complexity.

The technique helps to identify the below 3 questions for the programs/features

Is the feature/program testable?
Is the feature/ program understood by everyone?
Is the feature/program reliable enough?
As a QA we can use this technique to identify the “level” of our testing.

It is a practice that if the result of cyclomatic complexity is more or a bigger number, we consider that piece of functionality to be of complex nature and hence we conclude as a tester; that the piece of code/functionality requires an in-depth testing.

On the other hand, if the result of the Cyclomatic Complexity is a smaller number, we conclude as QA that the functionality is of less complexity and decide the scope accordingly.

As a QA its very important that we understand the entire testing lifecycle and should be able to suggest changes in our process if required.

The goal is to deliver high-quality software and in that way, a QA should take all the necessary measures to improve the process and way testing team executes the tests.

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